Episcopalians in the United States should spare a thought for Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has objected to the ordination of a gay bishop by the American Episcopal Church in 2004. The American church acted, it says, to bear more faithful witness to the ministry of Jesus Christ, but the move has strained the church.

Some U.S. parishes have sought to align themselves with the Nigerian bishop’s diocese or with other churches in the Anglican Communion, rather than with the American hierarchy. The Communion, which is made up of churches with historic connections with the Church of England (whose archbishop of Canterbury is the Communion’s spiritual leader), has issued an ultimatum to the American church, telling it to cease from further actions that exacerbate divisions in the church, or face expulsion.

While some American Episcopalians may feel put upon, a look at the situation of the Nigerian archbishop’s flock, and the country’s Christian community generally, shows that they have problems, too.

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From here:

The American Anglican Council’s (AAC) recent online petition received over 4,000 signatures in its first week and is still gaining support. The TEC Legal Transparency Petition calls for The Episcopal Church (TEC) to state how much money it has spent since 2004 on litigation against individuals and parishes and to make public the source of the money for said litigation. Within hours of its posting the petition reached the 1,000 signature mark. If you want to sign the petition and haven’t had the chance, you can still go to our home page and sign. You will not be solicited or e-mailed if you sign. The petition will be used to shed light on a controversial issue that seems to have eluded the headlines and the nightly news stories.”>The American Anglican Council’s (AAC) recent online petition received over 4,000 signatures in its first week and is still gaining support. The TEC Legal Transparency Petition calls for The Episcopal Church (TEC) to state how much money it has spent since 2004 on litigation against individuals and parishes and to make public the source of the money for said litigation. Within hours of its posting the petition reached the 1,000 signature mark. If you want to sign the petition and haven’t had the chance, you can still go to our home page and sign. You will not be solicited or e-mailed if you sign. The petition will be used to shed light on a controversial issue that seems to have eluded the headlines and the nightly news stories.

Today is the South Carolina Episcopal election, with only Mark Lawrence on the ballot.

I will not be there.

My mother’s memorial service is tomorrow and the whole family is travelling today to be with my Dad, my brother, and the family for this important event. After that next week I am on vacation. Blogging will therefore go down. Thanks very much for your prayers and your support–KSH.

Update: We are going here which is where Dad lives (just off campus) and where I grew up going every summer.

After a yearlong national search, St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Dallas has called the Rev. Robert S. Dannals as rector, the priest in charge of the parish.

He has been rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Greenville, S.C., for the last 10 years.

“Dr. Dannals has a passion for evangelism and teaching, an impressive record of visionary leadership, and a proven ability to lead large, complex organizations,” David Martin, senior warden at St. Michael and All Angels, said in a written statement.

Dr. Dannals, 51, is a graduate of Florida State University and Virginia Theological Seminary.

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The rancor erupted shortly before 11 p.m. as Rep. Michael R. McNulty (D-N.Y.) gaveled close the vote on a standard procedural measure with the outcome still in doubt.

Details remain fuzzy, but numerous Republicans argued afterward that they had secured a 215-213 win on their motion to bar undocumented immigrants from receiving any federal funds apportioned in the agricultural spending bill for employment or rental assistance. Democrats, however, argued the measure was deadlocked at 214-214 and failed, members and aides on both sides of the aisle said afterward.

One GOP aide saw McNulty gavel the vote to a close after receiving a signal from his leaders ”” but before reading the official tally. And votes continued to shift even after he closed the roll call ”” a strange development in itself.

Whatever the final tally, acrimony quickly exploded between lawmakers on either side of the aisle as Democratic leaders tried to plot a solution, while parliamentarians on either side argued over protocol.

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Hospitals cannot even hydrate patients, let alone put bandages on them. The army is restless. Businessmen who refuse to cut prices in half are being arrested.

National Geographic reported 90% of all ranched animals slaughtered, and 60% of all rare wildlife gone. Each month, thousands of Zimbabweans flee to neighboring South Africa.

It’s tempting to think this can’t go on. Yet it does, just as Fidel Castro’s regime does. A tight little party elite keeps itself fed, clothed and loyal to the Mugabe regime, wallowing in luxury. Their only imperative: Stay in power. Three forces help them do that.

One, Mugabe’s control of his country’s strategic resources.

As hellish as operating conditions are in Zimbabwe, Mugabe has gotten his hands on the only resources of critical value to global industries that always have willing buyers.

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The world is a dangerous place to live ”” not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.

–Albert Einstein

Update (Friday evening):

1. As to the problem of text disappearing to the left after a blockquote when viewing the “recent comments” page using Internet Explorer, I think this problem is now solved. Please report any continuing problems you find, if any, being sure to note what web browser you are using.

2. I thought I had solved the right overflow problem (i.e. when there’s a very long link in the comment, which messes up the right margin). But my “fix” to hide the overflow, just created new problems. I’ve gone back to the original settings, which means if there is a long link, it will still cause the comment text to overlap the right menu bar.

The EASIEST “fix” is for commenters to avoid posting long links. If you’ve got a long link, please either use Tinyurl.com or learn how to format your link so that instead of pasting a long url www.abcdefghijkl…. etc., it will instead point to the link like: alphabet

Hi all.
We’ve not bombarded you all with too much admin stuff of late after a month or more of lots of admin messages when the new blog was launched in late May.

A few housekeeping details.

1. First the request: In general, if you’re contacting us with a story idea or a technical question or problem, PLEASE e-mail us rather than using the “Private Message” feature to contact us. Our address, as always: T19elves@yahoo.com

We welcome private messages on other topics, but e-mail works best if/when we want to forward something to Kendall or our other elf helpers. Thanks.

2. A question: It’s been awhile since we’ve raised the question of any bugs that need fixing or any features you’d like to see. Or opened the floor for questions and problems. What’s on your mind? How can we help? A few folks have been e-mailing us about unwanted e-mail from T19/Stand Firm. We can help with that. We are also always available to help tackle registration / login problems. Let us know in the comments or by e-mail how we can help.

3. Finally: we hope within a week to make some progress again on adding more links, Anglican and non-Anglican to the sidebar. Kendall’s travels which left us in charge fro two weeks in July, and our own overwhelming workload of late have meant that any blog formatting changes or adding features or links had to be put on hold. But we’d like to get back to that as soon as we can. We’ve saved all the links readers have already sent in as suggestions. But we always welcome other suggestions!

Feel free to use this as an open thread to give us your gripes, your questions, your suggestions…. Especially for newer readers / members who may not have had a chance to weigh in on these questions in May, we’d love to hear from you.

Doctors are becoming more assertive in refusing to treat patients for religious reasons, expanding the list of services they won’t provide beyond abortion to include artificial insemination, use of fetal tissues and even prescribing Viagra.

The shift is prompting a new round of debate in courts and state legislatures over the balance between protecting the constitutional right to religious freedom and laws prohibiting discrimination.

More than half the states in the past two years have debated expanding legal protections for health care providers, including pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for the “morning after” pill. Two states have passed them.

“We’ve wound up with statutes that are incredibly broad,” says Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin law professor who studies bioethics. She says the use of fetal tissue in the development of chicken pox and measles vaccines also has become an issue.

Read it all..

Read the whole thing.

About 80 people attended the events at St. Paul’s Church, Chestertown; Trinity Cathedral, Easton; and St. Alban’s, Salisbury. The format was essentially the same on all three evenings. After the bishop’s introduction, participants gathered in small groups and spent some time responding to three questions. The responses then were shared with the whole group. All of the responses are being saved in a file which Bishop Shand will review before responding to the House of Bishops’ request for feedback.

“I can’t believe how far we’ve come in the past three years,” said one seminarian who was part of the diocese’s task force on the Windsor Report. “Everyone was respectful, no one was pointing fingers. We were really listening to one another.”

A priest commented, “In the 17 years I’ve been in this diocese, this is the best gathering I’ve been a part of. There was a sense of the sacred. I’m very grateful for the bishop’s leadership.”

Read it all..

Read it all.

Kevin Kallsen of Anglican TV is making progress getting the audio and videos from this week’s Network Council meetings online. You can find those he’s posted and those still yet to come here: http://www.anglicantv.org/blog/index.cfm/ACN-Meeting-2007

Here are a few of the highlights and links:

ACN Council Meeting 2007 Moderator’s Address
Bishop Duncan’s Monday Morning address to the gathering

ACN Council Meeting 2007 PB Venables Bible Study (#1)
++Venables’ first teaching to the gathering, Monday afternoon (Abraham, Genesis 12)

ACN 2007 Final Press Conference
Tuesday afternoon’s final press conference. Participants: +Duncan, +Ackerman, +Iker, +Sutton, Thompson+ (Dean of Western Convocation), ++Venables

There’s more there, and more still to be posted so check it out.
And if these are a blessing to you, leave a tip for Kevin and Anglican TV if you’re able!